Upon its release in April 2024, Alessandro Genovesi’s The Tearsmith set the streaming world by storm, becoming the most-watched title on Netflix upon its debut. This easily accessible, not particularly deep, modern-day fairy tale follows two teens who find romance after a shared childhood trauma.

When Nica’s parents perish in a car accident, she is sent to an oppressively cruel orphanage, ruled over by an evil headmistress who literally tortures the children, finding favor only with the talented pianist Rigel. Years later, in young adulthood, the two are adopted together, and they navigate their newfound family, high school, and the outside world, while still battling their inner demons.

The first act, from fatal accident to Nica acclimating to life after adoption, has a clearer vision: a highly stylized tragic setting of a cold, troubled orphanage with muted colors and gloomy shadows. The musical score by Andrea Farri, with a steady, flowing piano, provides a sensory cohesion as the narrative jumps through the years. 

The story is clearly Young Adult-leaning, with a bright central heroine caught in a love triangle between the perfect golden boy / jock Lionel, and the dark, troubled Rigel. In fact, the atmosphere and musical mood feel straight out of Twilight, complete with an interior monologue nearly identical to Bella’s iconic “things [of which she is] absolutely positive” – her love for the bad boy.

Even given its target audience though, The Tearsmith feels plainly on-the-nose and largely predictable. When new plot elements are introduced, it’s hard not to immediately know where they will go; a rose found in Nica’s locker, left by a secret admirer; the children of the orphanage want Nica to testify against their oppressive headmistress, but Nica initially refuses; Rigel secretly has been looking out for Nica all these years, but doesn’t want her to know. Miniature mysteries and conflicts are constructed and unwound without a shroud of tension.

As a Netflix movie and production, it’s hard not to imagine that the film was constructed, or tailored, to meet the broadest possible appeal on a global platform. After the more interesting (however over-the-top) first act, the new home life and school of Nica feel bland and generic, as any typical middle-class home and any typical teenage girl’s room, without any extra flourish of personality. The physical signs and screens shown are also in English, further highlighting the (inevitable) positioning of this film for a global audience, even if it doesn’t make sense for this Italian-set academy to be called Barnaby High School.

A tonal element (expressed verbally so often that it’s text and not subtext) is that Nica is a protagonist caught in a fairy tale, and Rigel is the predatory wolf. That he is a bad boy who must be avoided keeps being reaffirmed by all parties, but just what makes him so bad (other than occasionally getting in fist fights) isn’t particularly apparent. 

This teen romance may be too swept up in the emotion or the idea of the central tension, to actually focus on what that feeling is, or how to construct it. The Tearsmith is an easy, and deeply unchallenging watch, which will likely inspire more laughter than romantic swooning.